title: Bioinformatic analysis of the origin, sequence and diversification of mu opioid receptors in vertebrates.
abstract: Opioid receptors are a class of G protein-coupled receptors that mediate the effects of the different families of endogenous opioid peptides and natural alkaloid drugs such as morphine and its synthetic derivatives. In particular, the mu opioid receptor (MOR) represents the principal molecular target for morphine and it plays key roles in opioid analgesia and addiction. In this work, new putative MORs from different vertebrate species were identified in silico and their gene organization and predicted protein products are compared with the previously characterized MORs. Also, for the first time a new genomic organization in euteleleostei teleosts has been identified. Moreover, we suggest that MORs may be specific to craniate lineage. The analysis of functional mapping of MORs we present is an important contribution to the identification of their evolutionarily conserved regions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience of Castilla y León (INCYL), University of Salamanca, Spain.
authors.forename: M Javier
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Herrero-Turrion
authors.forename: Raquel E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D023281:Genomics; D010802:Phylogeny; D017450:Receptors, Opioid, mu / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D026801:Synteny; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017450:Receptors, Opioid, mu